Their purpose is obvious, but for any who would question the value of daily fire "severity patrols" along Boulder's western borders, note: A wildland fire crew on routine rounds was the first to spot and launch efforts to contain last June's Flagstaff Fire.

By being on the scene shortly after the blaze began, they were able to provide regional authorities with important information about the fire. They helped ensure that air support was quickly dispatched to the scene, which in turn kept the blaze from growing into a large-scale "project fire."

The Flagstaff Fire never spread beyond 300 acres or damaged any structures, and 100 percent containment was reached nine days after the lightning strike that sparked it June 26.

Brian Oliver, Boulder's wildland fire operations manager, noted it was helpful that there were already additional resources in the state as fire crews battled the Waldo Canyon and High Park fires, but said quick action is essential in containing wildfires.

"Having the capacity to provide a rapid initial attack is really critical," he said.

With Colorado's cool, wet spring now a distant memory, and cheatgrass and other fuels now tinder dry, Boulder instituted daily severity patrols on June 12 this year.

The three-man ground teams that perform the patrols set out from the wildland "Fire Cache" -- a re-purposed property located at 19th Street and Violet Avenue where the department's wildland gear and trucks are stored.

On Wednesday, the skies were mostly clear around 2 p.m., leading wildfire operations specialists Thomas Kelsea and Jamie Carpenter to jump into the "crew rig" -- a truck with a large storage compartment designed for carrying gear, tools and rations -- to make a quick pass by some potential problem areas.

The patrols typically employ a type 6 fire engine -- also known as a brush truck -- but the truck blew a tire earlier Wednesday and had to be sent to fleet for repairs.

Oliver said type 6 trucks are smaller and nimbler than a typical fire engine, carrying 300 gallons of water, roughly 1,000 feet of hose and tools for fighting wildfires such as chainsaws and shovels, as well as other hand tools for digging trenches and creating fire lines.

"Lots of our fires we end up hiking to anyway, so the truck is just a taxi to the base of a hill," Kelsea said of his mode of transportation Wednesday.

Kelsea took the truck up Boulder Canyon Drive, onto Sugarloaf Road and did a quick pass by the Betasso Preserve on Betasso Road before heading back to the Fire Cache.

On patrols during which there is no thunderstorm nearby, Kelsea said crews focus on trouble spots like unimproved campgrounds, popular trails and areas burned in previous fires.

In cases where there is a storm nearby the most challenging thing is determining the difference between water vapor from rains and smoke from a possible fire, Kelsea said.

"Water vapor looks a lot like smoke, but it moves differently," Kelsea said, noting that smoke billows into the air and is blown around by winds, whereas water vapor tends to be more stationary. "The way to get around that is to find a different angle. Hike up a hill."

Another challenge Kelsea noted is the different ways a wildfire can start. If lightning strikes a dead tree it could cause it to explode, he said, instantly spreading embers and flames into the nearby forest.

While this is hazardous, Kelsea noted a lightning strike on a healthy tree may be more problematic, as it can use the moisture in that tree as a conduit and move down to the base of a tree. There, it could smolder for hours or even days before the flames are noticeable.

Beyond keeping watch on the areas where a fire might start, Kelsea said wildland crews spend about half their time performing fuel reduction and other mitigation work. Patrols occur in the peak burn hours -- from noon until about 5 p.m. -- with mitigation efforts taking place in the mornings or early afternoons.

While crews will clear dry fuels near improved structures and the property boundaries around homes to provide a buffer in case of fire, crews do not clear all fuels in the rural-urban interface such as the tall cheatgrasses that become a major fuel source as they dry in the summer, according to Kelsea.

"You can't pave the world," he said

Crews also cannot perform mitigation work on private property, so they rely on public education efforts and a partnership with Boulder Open Space and Mountain Parks to get the word out to area residents about the best ways to protect their homes from fire danger.

In the event Kelsea and his crewmembers were to spot a fire, they would immediately call local emergency dispatch centers to describe the situation and make sure additional resources are on their way.

Other obligations include providing information about how the fire is behaving and what direction it might be moving in, as well as outlining the best route by which to reach the scene and identifying an anchor point from which the fire can be attacked.

Once the patrol team has performed those duties, Kelsea said it begins cutting down trees and using hand tools to clear other dry fuels from the areas around the fire. The main goal is to create a fire line where everything has been removed down to the mineral soil.

"For years and years, what it comes down to is if you want to stop a fire, you need to make a line in the dirt," Kelsea said.

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